MatCom Public Safety Dispatch addresses 911 outages

Last week, the Mat-Su Borough experienced an outage of the 911 services that so many residents depend on in times of emergencies. At the time, no cause for the outage had been mentioned, only that all outbound calls were rerouted. Later, the 911 system was restored and dispatchers were able to assist those calling the emergency number.

Last year, in November, MatCom experienced its first full 911 outage that affected the public’s ability to make 911 calls. Since that outage, additional 911 service outages have occurred. MatCom staff, the City of Wasilla’s IT resources, and others, have worked with Solacom’ s technical support staff, engineers, and management to mitigate these service interruptions.

In the fall of 2021, MatCom purchased and installed new E911 system equipment and entered into a software service and support agreement with Solacom, a subsidiary of Comtech Telecommunications Corporation. Since then, MatCom has continually added features and capabilities to the Solacom Guardian 911 Call Handling system to improve security and performance.

Wasilla officials said that the root cause of these service interruptions has been determined to be a software issue related to the placing of outbound calls through a phone system that is not under the Solacom support agreement, nor was it under the management and control of the City of Wasilla or MatCom.

“We have high confidence that this preventative measure will prove effective until a permanent fix can be implemented next week,” the City of Wasilla said in a press release.

“Our highest priority is ensuring that 911 services never experience an outage for any reason. The 911 system is encapsulated inside a secure network with 24/7 security monitoring. The system has multiple, geographically diverse, and redundant servers, connected by redundant fiber and copper circuits. Every measure is being taken to restore system stability, functionality, and the public’s trust.”

MatCom Public Safety Dispatch has been the 911 provider for the MSB since July 1, 2017, answering approximately 44,000 911 calls annually.